Head of a Girl; Aggie Manetti (?)

The model for this drawing was probably Aggie Manetti, a Scottish woman noted for her beautiful profile, who Rossetti used as a model in the early 1860s. Rossetti is usually considered the architect of the Pre-Raphaelite canon of female beauty. With long necks, sensual, voluptuous features, strong emphatic jaws, and thick luxuriant hair, these women, often depicted with wistful or melancholic expressions, have become emblematic of much Pre-Raphaelite art. One of the founders of the original Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti’s enthusiasm for poetic, medieval and biblical subjects became a critical influence in the work of later artists we now term Pre-Raphaelite.